Information processing apparatus, information processing method, computer program, and information sharing system

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus that can communicate with plural content viewing apparatuses includes a group registering unit that registers users of the content viewing apparatuses in groups, a sharing-level setting unit that sets sharing level information representing an information sharing level among users belonging to an identical group, a viewing-information receiving unit that receives viewing information of the users, a user-viewing-content managing unit that manages a user viewing content database, a discriminating unit that discriminates, when a viewing information request of another user is received, the other users belonging to a group identical with a group to which the user of the content viewing apparatus at the request source belongs, an information extracting unit that extracts viewing information of the discriminated other users from the user viewing content database, and a viewing-information transmitting unit that transmits the viewing information to the content viewing apparatus at the request source.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 13/738,056, filed Jan.10, 2013, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 13/655,987,filed Oct. 19, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,143,830, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 12/270,177, filed Nov. 13, 2008,now U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,389, which is entitled to the priority filingdate of Japanese application(s) P2007-298617, filed Nov. 16, 2007, theentirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, aninformation processing method, a computer program, and an informationsharing system.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, computerization of various home electronics has beenadvanced. For example, a television receiver has not only a function ofreceiving video and sound contents of programs from broadcastingstations and displaying the contents but also a function of acquiringvarious kinds of information such as program guides and displaying theinformation. A television receiver including a network communicationfunction can exchange various kinds of information with other receiversas well.

For example, JP-A-2006-50370 discloses a technique for displaying, whena user views a program content of a television broadcast in a televisionreceiver, information concerning other registered users (e.g., thumbnailimages of the other users and names, channels, and videos of contentsviewed by the other users) in parallel to the program content. Thisallows the user to acquire, during the viewing of the program content,the information concerning the contents and the channels viewed by theother users. Therefore, the user can obtain a chance for viewing unknowncontents and a chance for viewing contents together with the otherusers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, the viewing information of the user described above(information indicating which content the user is viewing) isinformation related to privacy of an individual. Therefore, the user whodiscloses the viewing information may not wish to disclose the viewinginformation to complete strangers, estranged, acquaintances, and thelike. When the user acquires viewing information of the other users, theuser may wish to acquire viewing information of people having closerelations with the user such as family members and close friends or maywish to obtain viewing information of as many people as possibleincluding estranged acquaintances.

The technique disclosed in JP-A-2006-50370 does not have a function ofperforming privacy management for viewing information shared among usersand arbitrarily adjusting a range of users from whom the viewinginformation is acquired. Therefore, it is difficult for a user whoworries about privacy to user the technique. When the user acquireviewing information of the other users as a chance for viewing acontent, it is difficult for the user to select viewing information ofthe other users according to preference of the user.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide an information processingapparatus, an information processing method, a computer program, and aninformation sharing system that can flexibly perform privacy managementand adjustment of an information acquisition range corresponding topreference of a user when viewing information of a content is sharedamong users.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is providedan information processing apparatus that can communicate with pluralcontent viewing apparatuses via a network, the information processingapparatus including: a group registering unit that registers users ofthe content viewing apparatuses in groups; a sharing-level setting unitthat sets, on the basis of level setting instructions received from thecontent viewing apparatuses, sharing level information representing aninformation sharing level among users belonging to an identical group; aviewing-information receiving unit that receives viewing information ofthe users in the content viewing apparatuses from the content viewingapparatuses; a user-viewing-content managing unit that manages, on thebasis of the viewing information received from the content viewingapparatuses, a user viewing content database in which plural contentsthat can be provided to the content viewing apparatuses and users whoview the contents are associated; a discriminating unit thatdiscriminates, when a viewing information request of another user isreceived from the content viewing apparatus, on the basis of the sharinglevel information, the other users belonging to a group identical with agroup to which the user of the content viewing apparatus at the requestsource belongs; an information extracting unit that extracts viewinginformation of the discriminated other users from the user viewingcontent database; and a viewing-information transmitting unit thattransmits the viewing information of the discriminated other users tothe content viewing apparatus at the request source.

The sharing level information may include information disclosure levelinformation representing a range of other users to whom a certain userpermits disclosure of viewing information of the user and informationacquisition level information representing a range of other users fromwhom a certain user acquires viewing information. The sharing-levelsetting unit may set, on the basis of the level setting instructionsreceived from the content viewing apparatuses, the informationdisclosure level information and the information acquisition levelinformation for the users of the content viewing apparatuses. Thediscriminating unit may discriminate, out of the other users belongingto the group identical with the group to which the user of the contentviewing apparatus at the request source belongs, other users in a userrange represented by the information acquisition level information setfor the user, the user being included in a user range represented by theinformation disclosure level information set for the other users.

During viewing of contents in the content viewing apparatuses, thesharing-level setting unit may dynamically set and change setting levelsof the information disclosure level information and the informationacquisition level information according to a change in the level settinginstructions received from the content viewing apparatuses. Thediscriminating unit may dynamically change, according to the setting andchanging for the information disclosure level information and theinformation acquisition level information, other users discriminated outof the other users belonging to the group identical with the group towhich the user of the content viewing apparatus at the request sourcebelongs.

The sharing-level setting unit may set level values of both theinformation disclosure level information and the information acquisitionlevel information on the basis of one setting instruction value includedin the level setting instruction. The sharing-level setting unit mayhave plural setting modes for setting the level value of the informationdisclosure level information and/or the level value of the informationacquisition level information to values different from each other on thebasis of the one setting instruction value.

The sharing level information may include user correlation informationrepresenting a closeness level among users belonging to the identicalgroup. The discriminating unit may discriminate, on the basis of theuser correlation information, the information disclosure levelinformation and the information acquisition level information, the otherusers belonging to the group identical with the group to which the userof the content viewing apparatus at the request source belongs.

During viewing of contents in the content viewing apparatuses, thesharing-level setting unit may dynamically set and change the settinglevel of the sharing level information according to a change in thelevel setting instructions received from the content viewing apparatus.The discriminating unit may dynamically change, according to the settingand changing for the setting level of the sharing level information,other users discriminated out of the other users belonging to the groupidentical with the group to which the user of the content viewingapparatus at the request source belongs.

The viewing information may include at least one of informationconcerning contents viewed in the content viewing apparatuses,information representing enthusiasm of a user for content viewing, andviewing state information representing a content viewing state of auser.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information processing method in an information processingapparatus that can communicate with plural content viewing apparatusesvia a network, the information processing method including the steps of:registering users of the content viewing apparatuses in groups; setting,on the basis of level setting instructions received from the contentviewing apparatuses, sharing level information representing aninformation sharing level among users belonging to an identical group;receiving viewing information of the users in the content viewingapparatuses from the content viewing apparatuses; managing, on the basisof the viewing information received from the content viewingapparatuses, a user viewing content database in which plural contentsthat can be provided to the content viewing apparatuses and users whoview the contents are associated; discriminating, when a viewinginformation request of another user is received from the content viewingapparatus, on the basis of the sharing level information, the otherusers belonging to a group identical with a group to which the user ofthe content viewing apparatus at the request source belongs; extractingviewing information of the discriminated other users from the userviewing content database; and transmitting the viewing information ofthe discriminated other users to the content viewing apparatus at therequest source.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a computer program for causing an information processingapparatus that can communicate with plural content viewing apparatusesvia a network to execute the steps of: registering users of the contentviewing apparatuses in groups; setting, on the basis of level settinginstructions received from the content viewing apparatuses, sharinglevel information representing an information sharing level among usersbelonging to an identical group; receiving viewing information of theusers in the content viewing apparatuses from the content viewingapparatuses; managing, on the basis of the viewing information receivedfrom the content viewing apparatuses, a user viewing content database inwhich plural contents that can be provided to the content viewingapparatuses and users who view the contents are associated;discriminating, when a viewing information request of another user isreceived from the content viewing apparatus, on the basis of the sharinglevel information, the other users belonging to a group identical with agroup to which the user of the content viewing apparatus at the requestsource belongs; extracting viewing information of the discriminatedother users from the user viewing content database; and transmitting theviewing information of the discriminated other users to the contentviewing apparatus at the request source.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information sharing system including plural content viewingapparatuses for viewing contents provided from a content providingapparatus and an information processing apparatus that can communicatewith the content viewing apparatuses via a network. The informationprocessing apparatus includes: a group registering unit that registersusers of the content viewing apparatuses in groups; a sharing-levelsetting unit that sets, on the basis of level setting instructionsreceived from the content viewing apparatuses, sharing level informationrepresenting an information sharing level among users belonging to anidentical group; a viewing-information receiving unit that receivesviewing information of the users in the content viewing apparatuses fromthe content viewing apparatuses; a user-viewing-content managing unitthat manages, on the basis of the viewing information received from thecontent viewing apparatuses, a user viewing content database in whichplural contents that can be provided to the content viewing apparatusesand users who view the contents are associated; a discriminating unitthat discriminates, when a viewing information request of another useris received from the content viewing apparatus, on the basis of thesharing level information, the other users belonging to a groupidentical with a group to which the user of the content viewingapparatus at the request source belongs; an information extracting unitthat extracts viewing information of the discriminated other users fromthe user viewing content database; and a viewing-informationtransmitting unit that transmits the viewing information of thediscriminated other users to the content viewing apparatus at therequest source. Each of the content viewing apparatuses includes: alevel-setting instructing unit that transmits, on the basis of an inputof a user of the content viewing apparatus, the level settinginstruction for setting the sharing level information to the informationprocessing apparatus; a viewing-information transmitting unit thattransmits viewing information of the user in the content viewingapparatus to the information processing apparatus; a viewing-informationreceiving unit that receives viewing information of the discriminatedother users from the information processing apparatus; and a displayunit that displays the viewing information of the discriminated otherusers.

As explained above, according to the embodiments of the presentinvention, when viewing information of a content is shared among users,it is possible to flexibly perform privacy management and adjustment ofan information acquisition range corresponding to preference of a user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an information sharing system accordingto a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a hardware configuration of an informationmanagement server according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a configuration of a content viewingapparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a configuration of the informationmanagement server according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of user correlation information (acloseness level) according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a user-viewing-content managing unitaccording to the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a user-viewing-content managing unitaccording to a modification of the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining group information of a group DBaccording to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining user correlation information of thegroup DB according to the embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining information disclosure levelinformation and information acquisition level information of the groupDB according to the embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining viewing information of a useraccording to the embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a user viewing DB according to theembodiment;

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a content information DB accordingto the embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining a user viewing content DB accordingto the embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining a filtered user viewing content DBaccording to the embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining a user viewing DB according to themodification of the embodiment;

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining a user viewing content DB accordingto the modification of the embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining a user viewing content DB accordingto the modification of the embodiment;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of environment setting processing in theinformation sharing system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart of a viewing information sharing method in theinformation sharing system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart of filtering processing in the informationsharing system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 22 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen ofthe content viewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen ofthe content viewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 24 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen ofthe content viewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 25 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen ofthe content viewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 26 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen ofthe content viewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 27 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen atthe time when level setting and changing is performed in the contentviewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 28 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen atthe time when level setting and changing is performed in the contentviewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 29 is a diagram for explaining an example of a display screen atthe time when level setting and changing is performed in the contentviewing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIGS. 30A and 30B are diagrams for explaining a method of dynamicallyperforming level setting and changing in the content viewing apparatusaccording to the embodiment;

FIGS. 31A and 31B are diagrams for explaining a method of dynamicallyperforming level setting and changing in the content viewing apparatusaccording to the embodiment; and

FIG. 32 is a diagram for explaining setting modes for the informationdisclosure level information and the information acquisition levelinformation according to the embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail below withreference to the accompanying drawings. In this specification and thedrawings, components having substantially the same functionalconfigurations are denoted by the same reference numerals and signs andredundant explanation of the components is omitted.

First Embodiment

First, an overview of an information sharing system according to a firstembodiment of the present invention is explained with reference toFIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the information sharing systemaccording to the first embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, an information sharing system 1 according to thisembodiment includes plural content viewing apparatuses 10A, 10B, and 10C(which may be generally referred to as “content viewing apparatuses 10”below) used by plural users A, B, C, and the like, respectively, aninformation management server 20, a broadcasting apparatus 7 of abroadcasting station, a content delivery server 9, and a network 5 thatconnects these apparatuses to one another.

The network 5 is a network that connects the content viewing apparatuses10 and the information management server 20 to be capable ofcommunicating with each other. The network 5 may be either a wirenetwork or a wireless network. As the network 5, for example, publicline networks such as the Internet, a telephone line network, and asatellite communication network, leased line networks such as variousLANs (Local Area Networks) including Ethernet (registered trademark), aWAN (Wide Area Network), an IP-VPN (Internet Protocol-Virtual PrivateNetwork), and the like can be used.

The broadcasting apparatus 7 and the content delivery server 9 areconfigured as examples of a content providing apparatus that provides acontent. The broadcasting apparatus 7 is set in the broadcasting stationand transmits a program content of a television broadcast to the contentviewing apparatus 10 via, for example, a broadcasting radio wave or aleased communication network. Broadcasting programs provided by thebroadcasting apparatus 7 may be programs of television broadcasts ofarbitrary systems such as a BS broadcast, a CS broadcast, a terrestrialdigital broadcast, a terrestrial analog broadcast, and a cablebroadcast.

The content delivery server 9 transmits a delivery content such as amovie and music to the content viewing apparatus 10 via the network 5.The content delivery server 9 includes, for example, an IPTV server thatprovides a program content of IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), a VODserver that provides contents of VOD (Video On Demand), or an electronicmusic delivery server that delivers music contents.

The content viewing apparatus 10 is an apparatus for reproducing andviewing contents. The content viewing apparatus 10 can be configured byan arbitrary apparatus as long as the apparatus can acquire contentsfrom the outside and reproduce the contents. In an example explainedbelow, the content viewing apparatus 10 is a television receiver (seeFIG. 1) that receives and reproduces program contents of a televisionbroadcast. However, a content viewing apparatus of the present inventionis not limited to such an example and may be, for example, variouscomputer apparatuses such as a personal computer (PC) and a serverapparatus, recording and reproducing apparatuses such as DVD and HDDplayers and recorders, personal digital electronics such as a gamemachine for home use, and portable terminals such as a cellular phone, aPDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a portable game machine, and aportable video and sound player. For example, the content viewingapparatus can be applied to a portable terminal such as a cellular phonethat can receive and reproduce program contents of a one-segmentbroadcast.

The content viewing apparatus 10 receives contents from contentproviding apparatuses such as the broadcasting apparatus 7 and thecontent delivery server 9 via the network 5 or the like and reproducesthe contents. Consequently, the user of the content viewing apparatus 10can view the reproduced contents. Viewing includes one of watching areproduced video of a video content and listening to reproduced sound ofa sound content or both. When a content is a program content, both anact of watching a program video and an act of listening to program soundcorrespond to viewing. The content viewing apparatus 10 can acquirecontents from the other content viewing apparatuses 10 via the network5. The content viewing apparatus 10 can also acquire contents viaremovable recording media (see reference numeral 128 shown in FIG. 3)such as an optical disk (e.g., a DVD or a CD) or a memory card.

A content to be viewed in the content viewing apparatus 10 may be anarbitrary content such as a video content including still images ormoving images forming a television program, a movie, a video program, aphotograph, a picture, or diagrams, an audio content such as music,public performance, or a radio program, an electronic book (E-book), agame, or software. In the following explanation, a program content of atelevision broadcast is explained as an example of the content. However,the present invention is not limited to such an example.

The content viewing apparatus 10 stores information concerning viewing(viewing information) of a content by the user in the content viewingapparatus 10 itself. This viewing information is informationrepresenting a viewing history of contents, viewing scheduling ofcontents, a viewing state of the user, and the like in the contentviewing apparatus 10. Details of the viewing information are describedlater. The content viewing apparatus 10 transmits the viewinginformation of the user of the content viewing apparatus 10 itself tothe information management server 20 via the network 5. The contentviewing apparatus 10 receives viewing information of the other users inthe other content viewing apparatuses 10 from the information managementserver 20 via the network 5 and displays the received viewinginformation of the other users in association with contents. Forexample, the content viewing apparatus 10A of the user A transmitsinformation representing a content A presently viewed by the user A tothe information management server 20 as viewing information of the userA. The content viewing apparatus 10A receives information representingthe other users B and C who are presently viewing the identical contentA from the information management server 20 as viewing information ofthe users B and C and displays the information in parallel to thecontent A being reproduced. Consequently, the user A can grasp that theother users B and C are viewing the identical content A.

The information management server 20 is an example of an informationprocessing apparatus of the present invention and has a function ofmanaging viewing information of the users in the content viewingapparatuses 10. The information management server 20 includes a computerapparatus and can communicate with the content viewing apparatuses 10via the network 5. The information management server 20 receives viewinginformation of the users from the content viewing apparatuses 10 andforms a database of the viewing information in association with acontent program guide. The information management server 20 transmitsviewing information of the other users to the content viewing apparatus10 in response to a request from the content viewing apparatus 10.Consequently, the viewing information of the users can be shared amongthe content viewing apparatuses 10 of the users. The users can graspviewing states one another.

The schematic configuration of the information sharing system 1according to this embodiment is explained above. In the followingexplanation, configurations of the content viewing apparatus 10 and theinformation management server 20 configuring the information sharingsystem 1 are explained.

First, a hardware configuration of the information management server 20according to this embodiment is explained with reference to FIG. 2. FIG.2 is a block diagram of the hardware configuration of the informationmanagement server 20 according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 2, the information management server 20 includes, forexample, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101, a ROM (Read Only Memory)102, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 103, a host bus 104, a bridge 105, anexternal bus 106, an interface 107, an input device 108, an outputdevice 109, a storage device (HDD) 110, a drive 111, a connection port112, and a communication device 113. In this way, the informationmanagement server 20 can be configured by using, for example, a generalinformation processing apparatus.

The CPU 101 functions as an arithmetic processing device and a controldevice, operates according to various programs, and controls respectiveunits in the information management server 20. The CPU 101 executesvarious kinds of processing according to programs stored in the ROM 102or programs loaded to the RAM 103 from the storage device 110. The ROM102 stores programs, arithmetic operation parameters, and the like usedby the CPU 101 and functions as a buffer for reducing accesses from theCPU 101 to the storage device 110. The RAM 103 temporarily storesprograms used in execution by the CPU 101, parameters that change in theexecution as appropriate, and the like. These devices are connected toone another by the host bus 104 including a CPU bus. The host bus 104 isconnected to the external bus 106 such as a PCI (Peripheral ComponentInterconnect/Interface) bus via the bridge 105.

The input device 108 includes operating means such as a mouse, akeyboard, a touch panel, buttons, switches, and a lever and an inputcontrol circuit that generates an input signal and outputs the inputsignal to the CPU 101. The output device 109 includes, for example, aCRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display device, a liquid crystal display (LCD)device, a display device such as a lamp, and a sound output device suchas a speaker.

The storage device 110 is configured as an example of a storing unit ofthe information management server 20 according to this embodiment. Thestorage device 110 is a device for storing various kinds of informationand includes, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive). The storage device110 drives a hard disk as a storage medium and stores programs andvarious data executed by the CPU 101. The drive 111 is a reader writerfor the storage medium and is incorporated in or externally attached tothe information management server 20. The drive 111 writes various datain and reads out various data from a removable storage medium such as amagnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or asemiconductor memory loaded in the information management server 20.

The connection port 112 is a port for connecting an external peripheralapparatus and has a connection terminal such as USB or IEEE 1394. Theconnection port 112 is connected to the CPU 101 and the like via theinterface 107, the external bus 106, the bridge 105, the host bus 104,and the like. The communication device 113 is, for example, acommunication interface including a communication device and the likefor connection to the network 5. The communication device 113 transmitsand receives various data via a network 5 between the informationmanagement server 20 and an external apparatus such as the contentviewing apparatus 10.

When the content viewing apparatus 10 includes an information processingapparatus such as a personal computer, it is possible to adopt aconfiguration substantially the same as that of the informationmanagement server 20. When the content viewing apparatus 10 is atelevision receiver or the like, since the well-known configuration canbe adopted, detailed explanation of a hardware configuration of thecontent viewing apparatus 10 is omitted.

A configuration of the content viewing apparatus 10 according to thisembodiment is explained with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a blockdiagram of the configuration of the content viewing apparatus 10according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 3, the content viewing apparatus 10 includes a contentmanaging unit 120, a content-display control unit 130, a display unit132, a level-setting instructing unit 134, a viewing-informationgenerating unit 136, a recognizing unit 138, an input unit 140, aviewing-information transmitting unit 142, a viewing-informationreceiving unit 144, a viewing-information-display control unit 146, anda superimposing unit 148.

The content managing unit 120 manages viewing of a content in thecontent viewing apparatus 10. The content managing unit 120 includes,for example, a content acquiring unit 122, a content reproducing unit124, and a viewing-history managing unit 126.

The content acquiring unit 122 has a function of acquiring a contentfrom an external apparatus. For example, the content acquiring unit 122receives, via an antenna 127, a program content transmitted from thebroadcasting apparatus 7. At this point, the content acquiring unit 122functions as a tuner for a broadcast program and tunes in and receives aprogram of a channel designated by the user. The content acquiring unit122 receives, via the network 5 and the communication device 113 (seeFIG. 2), a delivery content transmitted from the content delivery server9. The content acquiring unit 122 reads out a content stored in theremovable recording media 128 loaded to the content viewing apparatus 10using the drive 111 (not shown). As the removable recording media 128,an arbitrary recording medium like an optical disk such as anext-generation optical disk (Blu-Ray disk, etc.), a DVD-R, a DVD-RW, aDVD-RAM, or a magneto-optical disk or a memory card including varioussemiconductor memories such as a flash memory can be used.

The content reproducing unit 124 has a function of reproducing a contentacquired from the external apparatus. The content reproducing unit 124functions as, for example, a decoder that decodes content data. Thecontent reproducing unit 124 outputs video data of a content obtained byreproduction processing to the content display unit 122 and outputssound data to the not-shown speaker.

The viewing-history managing unit 126 manages a viewing history ofcontents in the content viewing apparatus 10. The viewing historyincludes information concerning a content viewed in the past, a contentpresently viewed, and a content scheduled to be viewed in future (acontent scheduled for viewing or recording by the user). For example,the viewing-history managing unit 126 can obtain viewing histories inthe past and at present by managing a history of reproduction by thecontent reproducing unit 124. The viewing-history managing unit 126 canobtain a viewing schedule in future as well through management ofviewing scheduling or record scheduling by the user. The viewing-historymanaging unit 126 stores such a viewing history in a viewing historydatabase (not shown). The viewing-history managing unit 126 outputs theviewing history of the contents in the content viewing apparatus 10 tothe viewing-information generating unit 136.

The content-display control unit 130 performs image processing necessaryfor displaying a content reproduced by the content reproducing unit 124on the display unit 132. For example, the content-display control unit130 reestablishes a frame of video data of a reproduced content togenerate a display screen or adjusts a display position, a size, adisplay area, and the like of content video data in the screen of thedisplay unit 130.

The display unit 132 includes a display device and displays a video of acontent inputted from the content-display control unit 130 and viewinginformation of the other users inputted from theviewing-information-display control unit 146 described later.

The level-setting instructing unit 134 transmits, on the basis of a userinput to the input unit 140, a level setting instruction includingsharing level information of the user of the content viewing apparatus10 (user correlation information, information disclosure levelinformation, information acquisition level information, etc.) to theinformation management server 20 and instructs level setting for thesekinds of information. Details of shared level information are describedlater.

The viewing-information generating unit 136 generates viewinginformation of a content by the user in the content viewing apparatus10. The viewing-information generating unit 136 generates viewinghistory of the user of the content on the basis of, for example, aviewing history inputted from the content managing unit 120, user inputdata to the input unit 140, a viewing space recognized by therecognizing unit 138, video and sound data of the user, or the like. Theviewing-information transmitting unit 142 transmits the viewinginformation generated by the viewing-information generating unit 136 tothe information management server 20 via the network 5.

Viewing information is explained in detail. The viewing information isinformation representing a viewing content (any one of a content viewedby the user in the past in the content viewing apparatus 10, a contentpresently viewed, and a content scheduled to be viewed in future; thesame applies in the following explanation) (see FIG. 11). The viewinginformation is information different for each of the users of thecontent viewing apparatuses 10. It is possible to grasp tastes ofcontents of the users in the content viewing apparatuses 10 using suchviewing information.

The viewing information according to this embodiment includes, forexample,

(1) information concerning a viewing content in the content viewingapparatus 10 (hereinafter, “viewing content information”),

(2) information representing enthusiasm of the user in content viewing(hereinafter, “enthusiasm information”),

(3) viewing state information representing a viewing state of the userwith respect to a content, and

(4) information representing ON and OFF of a power supply for thecontent viewing apparatus 10.

The viewing content information in (1) includes identificationinformation (e.g., a channel, a content ID, and a program name) of theviewing content in the content viewing apparatus 10. It is possible tospecify a content that the user is viewing (or viewed or plans to view)according to the viewing content information.

The enthusiasm information in (2) is, for example, informationrepresenting thoughts of the user on the viewing content, informationrepresenting whether the viewing state of the user is “viewing a contentwhile doing other things” or “glued”, or information representingfeelings of the user. As a method of acquiring the enthusiasminformation, for example, there are input of text information to theinput unit 140 by the user (e.g., “enjoyable” or “tedious”), input ofparameters (e.g., an enthusiasm index “0 to 100%”), and selection inputconcerning options representing enthusiasm displayed on a screen (e.g.,button selection for marks of feelings). It is possible to grasp tastesand feelings of the other users and sympathizes with the other usersabout content viewing according to the enthusiasm information.

The viewing state information in (3) represents a viewing state of theuser indicating when, where, and with whom the user of the contentviewing apparatus 10 viewed a content, which content the user viewed,how long and in what kind of method the user viewed the content. Forexample, information concerning viewing time of a content such asviewing start time and viewing duration can be obtained fromreproduction execution time and recording time for a content presentlybroadcasted or a content recorded in the past, time of a future contentscheduled to be recorded, and the like. Information such as presence orabsence of the user near the content viewing apparatus 10, facerecognition and voice recognition for the viewing user, and the numberof viewers can be obtained by applying image processing and soundprocessing to image or video data obtained by using the recognizing unit138 (a camera, a microphone, a sensor, etc.) provided in the contentviewing apparatus 10. It is possible to grasp viewing states of theother users according to the viewing state information.

It is possible to grasp presence or absence of viewing of the otherusers and presence or absence of the user in an installation location ofthe content viewing apparatus 10 (e.g., a home of the user) according tothe information representing ON and OFF of the power supply for thecontent viewing apparatus 10 in (4).

The details of the viewing information according to this embodiment areexplained above. The viewing-information generating unit 136 shown inFIG. 3 generates viewing information (see FIG. 11) as explained above.The viewing-information transmitting unit 142 transmits the viewinginformation to the information management server 20 b via the network 5.The viewing information is transmitted to the information managementserver 20, for example, every time a content is viewed or every timerecord scheduling or viewing scheduling is executed. However, thepresent invention is not limited to such an example. The viewinginformation may be periodically transmitted. Alternatively, the viewinginformation may be transmitted at arbitrary timing such as at the timewhen the power supply for the content viewing apparatus 10 is turned onor at the time when a request from the information management server 20is received.

The viewing-information receiving unit 142 receives viewing informationof the other users from the information management server 20 via thenetwork 5. The received viewing information of the other users isappropriately filtered information among viewing information of a largenumber of users. Details of this filtering are described later.

The viewing-information-display control unit 146 performs imageprocessing necessary for displaying the viewing information of the otherusers inputted from the viewing-information receiving unit 142 on thedisplay unit 132. For example, the viewing-information-display controlunit 146 converts the received viewing information of the other usersinto user information representing the other users (e.g., marks, icons,face images, etc. allocated to the respective users) and displays theviewing information. Alternatively, the viewing-information-displaycontrol unit 146 displays the received viewing information of the otherusers in a program guide format by associating the viewing informationwith a program guide of contents. The viewing-information-displaycontrol unit 146 adjusts a display position, a size, a display area, andthe like of the viewing information of the other users in the screen ofthe display unit 130.

The superimposing unit 148 superimposes an image of information on theother users outputted from the viewing-information-display control unit146 on an image of a video content outputted from the content-displaycontrol unit 130 and displays the image. Consequently, together with avideo of a content being reproduced, the information on the other userswho are viewing (or viewed or schedules to view) the content isdisplayed in parallel on the display unit 132 of the content viewingapparatus 10. Therefore, the user can grasp the other users who areviewing a content that the user is viewing. A specific example of adisplay screen in which viewing information of the other users issuperimposed is described later.

The user can operate the content viewing apparatus 10 using not only theinput unit 140 but also a remote controller 3. For example, the user candynamically adjust a sharing level of viewing information of the otherusers by operating a lever of the remote controller 3 while viewing acontent. Details of the adjustment are described later.

A configuration of the information management server 20 according tothis embodiment is explained with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a blockdiagram of the configuration of the information management server 20according to this embodiment. In the following explanation, FIGS. 8 to18 are referred to as appropriate in order to explain informationtreated by the information management server 20 and the structure of adatabase.

As shown in FIG. 4, the information management server 20 schematicallyincludes a communication unit 200 that performs data communication withthe content viewing apparatuses 10 of the respective users via thenetwork 5, a user-information managing unit 210 that manages sharinglevel information among plural users belonging to an identical group,and a user-viewing-content managing unit 220 that manages contentviewing information of the respective users.

The communication unit 200 includes a sharing-level receiving unit 202,a viewing-information receiving unit 204, an acquisition-requestreceiving unit 206, and a viewing-information transmitting unit 208. Thesharing-level receiving unit 202 receives sharing level informationinstructed to be set by the respective users from the content viewingapparatuses 10 of the respective users. The viewing-informationreceiving unit 204 receives viewing information of the respective usersfrom the content viewing apparatuses 10 of the respective users. Theacquisition-request receiving unit 206 receives, from the contentviewing apparatus 10 of a certain user, a viewing information request asa command for requesting acquisition of viewing information of the otherusers. The viewing-information transmitting unit 208 transmits viewinginformation of the other users corresponding to the respective users,which is generated by a filtering unit 218 described later, to thecontent viewing apparatuses 10 of the respective users.

The user-information managing unit 200 includes a group registering unit212, a sharing-level setting unit 214, a group database 216 (hereinafterreferred to as “group DB 216”), and the filtering unit 218. The groupregistering unit 212 registers the users of the content viewingapparatuses 10 in groups. The sharing-level setting unit 214 setssharing level information among users in an identical group. The groupDB 216 stores group information and sharing level information. Thefiltering unit 218 discriminates (filters) viewing information providedto the content viewing apparatuses 10. These units are described indetail below.

The group registering unit 212 groups the users of the content viewingapparatuses 10 into a specific group or community and registers theusers in the group DB 216 in groups. For example, like a groups in a SNS(Social Networking Service), this user group can be arbitrarily setaccording to various user attributes (age, sex, hobby, taste, residenceregion, work, friendship, etc.). When the group registering unit 212receives a group registering request from the user of the contentviewing apparatus 10, the group registering unit 212 performs userauthentication processing and, then, generates and registers a new groupor registers the new group in addition to the existing group. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 8, the group registration is executed byregistering, in the group DB 216, group information in which user IDs ofusers belonging to a group and user names of the users are associated.The group DB 216 is stored in the storage device 110 (see FIG. 2) of theinformation management server 20.

The sharing-level setting unit 214 sets sharing level information amongthe users belonging to the identical group on the basis of level settinginstructions received from the content viewing apparatuses 10 of therespective users. The level setting instructions are commands receivedfrom the content viewing apparatuses 10 by the sharing-level receivingunit 202. Sharing level information instructed to be set by therespective users is included in the level setting instructions. Thesharing level information is information representing a sharing level ofviewing information among plural users belonging to an identical group.The sharing level information includes user correlation information,information disclosure level information, and information acquisitionlevel information.

The user correlation information is information representing a closenesslevel among the users belonging to the identical group and is set at alevel value corresponding to closeness among the users. FIG. 5 is aconceptual diagram of the user correlation information (the closenesslevel). As shown in FIG. 5, a level value of the user correlationinformation (a closeness level value) is set in, for example, levelvalues in five stages (1 to 5). As the closeness among the users ishigher, the level value of the user correlation information is larger.For example, when the closeness level is high, for example, among familymembers or close friends, the level value of the user correlationinformation is set to “5”. When the closeness level is low, for example,among strangers, the level value is set to “1”.

The user A sets level values of the user correlation information for therespective other users B, C, and the like in the group, respectively. Inother words, the user A operates the content viewing apparatus 10,inputs desired level values of user correlation information with respectto the respective other users B, C, and the like and instructs to setthe level values. Then, a setting instruction including the usercorrelation information of the set level values is transmitted from thecontent viewing apparatus 10 to the information management server 20.The information management server 20 sets the received level values inthe group DB 216 as the user correlation information of the user A (seeFIG. 9).

A specific example of the user correlation information (the closenesslevel information) is shown in FIG. 9. As shown in FIG. 9, for each ofthe three users A to C, a level of correlation information with theother users is set. Concerning the user A, a closeness level value ofthe user B with a user ID “0002” is set to “3”. It is seen that the userA and the user B are in a relation with a medium degree of closeness(normal acquaintances, etc.). A closeness level value of the user C witha user ID “0003” is set to “2”. It is seen that the user A and the userC are in a relation with slightly low closeness (colleges in a company,etc.). A closeness level value of the user D with a user ID “0004” isset to “5”. It is seen that the user A and the user D are in a relationwith highest closeness (family members, close friends, etc.).

Such level values of the user correlation information serve as areference in performing filtering of viewing information of the otherusers on the basis of information disclosure level information andinformation acquisition level information described later. Therefore,the user correlation information is statically set in advance by therespective users. The level values can be set and changed as appropriatebut is not dynamically set and changed during content viewing or thelike.

The information disclosure level information and the informationacquisition level information are explained. The information disclosurelevel information is information representing a range of other users towhom a certain user permits disclosure of viewing information of theuser (e.g., a closeness level). The information acquisition levelinformation is information representing a range of other users from whoma certain user acquires viewing information (e.g., a closeness level).

In the same manner as the user correlation information (the closenesslevel), the information disclosure level information and the informationacquisition level information are also set to level values correspondingto an information disclosure level or an information acquisition leveldesired by the user. In the example shown in FIG. 5, for example, thelevel value of the information disclosure level information and thelevel value of the information acquisition level information(hereinafter referred to as “information disclosure level value” and“information acquisition level value”, respectively) are set to, forexample, level values in five stages (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). A user forwhom a level value of the user correlation information (a closenesslevel value) is set higher than the information disclosure level valueand the information acquisition level value is included in a user rangeof an information disclosure object and an information acquisitionobject.

For example, in the example shown in FIG. 5, the closeness levels of theusers B and C with respect to the user A are “3” and “2”, respectively.In this case, if the information disclosure level value and theinformation acquisition level value set by the user A are “3”, the userB is included in the information disclosure object and the informationacquisition object of the user A (closeness level value “3”≧informationdisclosure and information acquisition levels “3”). However, the user Cis not in the information disclosure object and the informationacquisition object of the user A (closeness level value “2”<informationdisclosure and information acquisition levels “3”). If the informationdisclosure level value and the information acquisition level value setby the user A are “1”, the users B and C are included in the informationdisclosure object and the information acquisition object of the user A(closeness level values “3” and “2”≧information disclosure andinformation acquisition level values “1”).

In the same manner as the user correlation information (the closenesslevel), the information disclosure level information and the informationacquisition level information are set on the basis of a user input tothe content viewing apparatus 10. In other words, the user A operatesthe content viewing apparatus 10, inputs information disclosure valuesand information acquisition level values with respect to the other usersB, C, and the like, and instructs setting of the level values. Then, asetting instruction including the set information disclosure level valueand information acquisition level value is transmitted from the contentviewing apparatus 10 to the information management server 20. Theinformation management server 20 sets the received level values in thegroup DB 216 as information disclosure level information and informationacquisition level information of the user A (see FIG. 10).

A specific example of the information disclosure level information andthe information acquisition level information is shown in FIG. 10. Asshown in FIG. 10, for each of the three users A to C, informationdisclosure level values and information acquisition level values withrespect to the other users are set in association with user IDs. Forexample, concerning the user A, the information disclosure level valueis set to “3” and the information acquisition level value is also set to“3”. Consequently, it is seen that the user A permits disclosure ofviewing information of the user A to other users with a medium degree ofcloseness (normal acquaintances, etc.) among the users in the group anddesires to acquire viewing information of the other users in therelation.

If the information disclosure level value and the informationacquisition level value are set to an identical level value, it ispossible to equally share viewing information with the other users. Ifthe information disclosure level value and the information acquisitionlevel value are set in a relation of “information disclosure levelvalue>information acquisition level value”, it is possible to set anacquisition range of viewing information wider than a disclosure rangeof viewing information. Conversely, if the information disclosure levelvalue and the information acquisition level value are set in a relationof “information disclosure level value<information acquisition levelvalue”, it is possible to set a disclosure range of viewing informationwider than an acquisition range of viewing information. As explainedabove, the user can freely set the information disclosure level valueand the information acquisition level value according to a relation withthe other users in the group and a range of users who desire to share(disclose and acquire) viewing information.

Unlike the level value of the user correlation information, theinformation disclosure level value and the information acquisition levelvalue can be freely set according to a desire of the user at anarbitrary point. Therefore, for example, when the user is viewing acontent using the content viewing apparatus 10, the user can dynamicallyset and change the information disclosure level value and theinformation acquisition level value. It is possible to dynamicallychange, according to such dynamic setting and changing, a range ofviewing information of the other users displayed on the content viewingapparatus 10.

As explained above, the sharing-level setting unit 214 sets, on thebasis of the level setting instructions from the content viewingapparatuses 10 of the respective users, the information disclosure leveland the information acquisition level among the users belonging to thegroup in the group DB 216.

The filtering unit 218 is explained. After executing filtering on thebasis of the sharing level information among the users set in the groupDB 216 as explained above, the filtering unit 218 extracts, in responseto requests from the respective users, viewing information of the otherusers associated with a content being viewed from a user viewing contentdatabase 228 of the user-viewing-content managing unit 220 describedlater. The filtering unit 218 provides the content viewing apparatuses10 of the respective users with the viewing information.

The filtering unit 218 is an example of a discriminating unit and aninformation extracting unit of the present invention. The discriminatingunit has a function of discriminating, in response to a viewinginformation request from another user received from the content viewingapparatus 10, other users matching a condition of the sharing levelinformation (the user correlation information, the informationdisclosure level information, and the information acquisition levelinformation) set in the group DB 216 out of the other users belonging tothe group identical with the group to which the user of the contentviewing apparatus at the request source belongs. The informationextracting unit has a function of extracting viewing information of theother users discriminated by the di s criminating unit from the userviewing content database 228.

The filtering unit 218 filters, on the basis of the informationdisclosure level and the information acquisition level set by therespective users, the viewing information of the other users provided tothe content viewing apparatuses 10. Consequently, it is possible toperform privacy management by limiting, according to user setting, theother users to whom viewing information is disclosed and adjusting arange of the other users from whom the user desires to acquire viewinginformation. Details of the filtering processing are described later(see FIG. 21).

The user-viewing-content managing unit 220 shown in FIG. 4 is explained.The user-viewing-content managing unit 220 includes a user viewingdatabase 222 (hereinafter referred to as “user viewing DB 222”), acontent information database 224 (hereinafter referred to as “contentinformation DB 224”), a matching unit 226, and a user viewing contentdatabase 228 (hereinafter referred to as “user viewing content DB 228”).

The user viewing DB 222, the content information DB 224, and the userviewing content DB 228 are stored in the storage device 110 (see FIG. 2)of the information management server 20 or the like. The respectiveunits are explained below.

The user-viewing-content managing unit 220 collects viewing informationof contents of the respective users from the respective content viewingapparatuses 10 and stores the viewing information in the user viewing DB222. In this way, the viewing information of the respective usersreceived from the respective content viewing apparatuses 10 by theviewing-information receiving unit 204 is stored in the user viewing DB222. A specific example of the viewing information is explained below.

A specific example of viewing information of the user A transmitted fromthe content viewing apparatus 10 to the information management server 20is shown in FIG. 11. As shown in FIG. 11, when the user is viewing aprogram content of a television broadcast or a VOD content in thecontent viewing apparatus 10, viewing information is generated by thecontent viewing apparatus 10 and transmitted to the informationmanagement server 20. The viewing information includes, for example, amedium that provides the viewing content, a channel, a content ID,viewing start time, viewing duration, and a viewing plan of a content infuture (viewing scheduling, record scheduling, etc.). It is possible tospecify a viewing content of the user according to the content ID asidentification information of the content, the viewing plan, and themedium, the channel, the viewing start time, and the like as contentattribute information. It is possible to grasp a viewing state of thecontent according to the viewing duration and the like.

The user-viewing-content managing unit 220 analyzes viewing informationtransmitted from the plural content viewing apparatuses 10, classifiesthe viewing information for each of the users, and stores the viewinginformation in the user viewing DB 222. At this point, theuser-viewing-content managing unit 220 adds user IDs, viewing IDs, andviewing attributes of the content viewing apparatuses 10, which transmitthe viewing information, to the viewing information.

A specific example of the viewing information of the user A stored inthe user viewing DB 222 is shown in FIG. 12. As shown in FIG. 12,information concerning the viewing content of the user A (e.g., aviewing ID, viewing date and time, identification information of acontent, and viewing attributes) is arrayed in the user viewing DB 222,for example, in time series. The “viewing ID” is an ID peculiarly givenin every viewing of a content by the user A. The “viewing date and time”is viewing date and time of the viewing content. The “identificationinformation of a content” is a channel and a content ID in the exampleshown in the figure. Besides, a G code and the like used for recordscheduling may be used. When only the content ID is used as theidentification information of a content, it is necessary that thecontent can be uniquely specified only by the content ID. Otherwise, forexample, a combination of the content ID and the viewing date and timemay be used.

The “viewing attributes” are attribute information for classifying theviewing content according to the viewing date and time. Among the“viewing attributes”, a “history in the past” represents that the user Aviewed a content broadcasted in the past, a “present state” representsthat the user A is presently viewing a content presently beingbroadcasted, and a “viewing plan” represents that the user Arecording-schedules or viewing-schedules a content to be broadcasted infuture and plans to view the content.

The information concerning the viewing content described above is storedin the user viewing DB 222 for each of the users in the group. In theexample shown in FIG. 12, the enthusiasm information, the viewing stateinformation, and the like are not shown. However, when these kinds ofinformation are included in the viewing information, the viewinginformation is stored in the user viewing DB 222.

The content information DB 224 is explained. The content information DB224 stores information concerning plural contents that can be providedto the respective content viewing apparatuses 10 from the contentproviding apparatus (the broadcasting apparatus 7, the content deliveryserver 9, etc. shown in FIG. 1), for example, a program guide ofcontents of a television broadcast. For example, the content informationDB 224 is a database obtained by adding meta-information and attributeinformation concerning contents to an electronic program guide (EPG) ofthe television broadcast and changing the electronic program guide to adatabase of metadata suitable for a system. The user-viewing-contentmanaging unit 220 of the information management server 20 acquires aprogram guide from an external program guide providing apparatus (e.g.,an EPG provider) or the like via the network 5 or the like. Theuser-viewing-content managing unit 220 stores the program guide in thecontent information DB 220 after adding predetermined meta-informationand attribute information necessary for use in the content sharingsystem 1 to the program guide.

A specific example of the program guide stored in the contentinformation DB 222 is shown in FIG. 13. As shown in FIG. 13, a programguide of plural contents that can be provided to the content viewingapparatuses 10 (i.e., plural contents that can be viewed in the contentviewing apparatuses 10) is stored in the content information DB 222. Theprogram guide is time-series information of content IDs in respectivechannels. In the program guide of the example shown in FIG. 13, date andtime of provision of contents to the content viewing apparatuses 10(broadcasting date and time, delivery date and time, etc.), content IDsof program contents of a predetermined broadcasting channels broadcastedfrom the broadcasting apparatus 7, and content IDs of program contentsof a predetermined delivery channel delivered from the content deliveryserver 9 are associated. With the program guide, it is seen that, forexample, in a time frame of 12:00, program contents with a content ID“03” are broadcasted in a broadcasting channel and program contents witha content ID “13” are delivered in a delivery channel.

The matching unit 226 shown in FIG. 4 is explained. The matching unit226 matches the user viewing DB 222 and the content information DB 224and establishes the user viewing content DB 228. The user viewingcontent DB 228 is a database in which content IDs of plural contents(contents in a program guide) that can be provided to the contentviewing apparatuses 10 and user IDs (viewing user information) of userswho view the contents are associated (see FIG. 14). The user viewingcontent DB 228 represents viewing contents of users in an identicalgroup.

The matching unit 226 is further explained with reference to FIG. 6. Asshown in FIG. 6, the matching unit 226 collates identificationinformation (content IDs) of contents included in the program guide readout from the content information DB 224 and identification information(content IDs, channels, viewing time, etc.) of viewing contents of theusers read out from the user viewing DB 222 and associates respectivecontents included in the program guide with user IDs of users who viewthe respective contents. Consequently, the user viewing content DB 228as information obtained by sorting viewing information of the pluralusers belonging to the group with the contents in the program guide isobtained (see FIG. 14). In this embodiment, all viewing contents withthe viewing states “history in the past”, “present state”, and “viewingplan” are associated with the contents of the program guide, which isthe time-series information, according to such matching.

A specific example of the user viewing content DB 228 is shown in FIG.14. As shown in FIG. 14, provision date and time of contents, contentIDs of contents of respective broadcast channels broadcasted to thecontent viewing apparatuses 10, and viewing user information (user IDs)representing users who viewed the contents are associated. For example,a user ID of the user A is associated with a content with a content ID“01” broadcasted in the past. It is seen that only the user A among theusers A, B, C, and the like in the group viewed the content. Similarly,user IDs of the users A, B, and C are associated with a content with acontent ID “03” being presently broadcasted. It is seen that the usersA, B, and C are presently viewing the content. A user ID of no user isassociated with a content with a content ID “02” broadcasted in thepast. It is seen that a user who viewed the content is not present inthe group. A user ID of the user D and a viewing probability “80%”thereof are associated with a content with a content ID “04” to bebroadcasted in future. As the viewing probability, a predetermined value“80%” may be typically allocated when record scheduling is performed.Alternatively, the viewing probability may be calculated on the basis ofviewing histories of users in the past, viewing probabilities of otherrecord-scheduled contents, and the like.

As explained above, the user-viewing-content managing unit 220 generatesthe user viewing content DB 228 and, every time new viewing informationis received from the content viewing apparatus 10, for example, adds,deletes, or changes viewing user information and updates the userviewing content DB 228. Since the user-viewing-content managing unit 220manages the user viewing content DB 228 in this way, the informationmanagement server 20 can typically store a content program guide inwhich latest viewing user information is associated with contents.

The filtering unit 218 of the user-information managing unit 210 isexplained in detail again. The filtering unit 218 filters, on the basisof the sharing level information set in the group DB 216, the viewinguser information included in the user viewing content DB 228.

Specifically, first, when the acquisition-request receiving unit 206receives viewing information requests for requesting acquisition ofviewing information of the other users from the respective contentviewing apparatuses 10, the filtering unit 218 specifies the user A ofthe content viewing apparatus 10 at a request source and reads out, fromthe group DB 216, sharing level information set for a group identicalwith a group to which the user A at the request source belongs.Subsequently, the filtering unit 218 discriminates, on the basis of usercorrelation information (a closeness level value) included in thesharing level information of the group and an information acquisitionlevel value of the user A, other users B to D at levels from which theuser A acquires viewing information out of other users B to Z in thegroup (first filtering). The filtering unit 218 discriminates, on thebasis of the user correlation information (the closeness level value)and information disclosure level values of the discriminated other usersB to D, the user B, to whom the viewing information of the user A isdisclosed, out of the discriminated other users B to D (secondfiltering).

Thereafter, the filtering unit 218 extracts viewing information (viewinguser information, a content ID, date and time, etc.) of the user Bdiscriminated out of the other users B to Z in the group from the userviewing content DB 228 and transmits the viewing information to thecontent viewing apparatus 10 of the user A at the request source.

The user viewing content DB 228 filtered for the user A is shown in FIG.15. As shown in FIG. 15, in the user viewing content DB 228, among theviewing user information of the users A to D associated with thecontents, viewing user information of the user C excluded by thefiltering is deleted. Information in which the viewing user information(the user IDs), the content IDs, and the date and time of the users Band D excluding the user C are associated is transmitted from the userviewing content DB 228 to the content viewing apparatus 10 of the user Aas viewing information of the other users. Consequently, the user A canacquire the viewing information of the other users B and D in a userrange from which the user A acquires information and to which the user Adiscloses information. This makes it possible to provide the user A withviewing information of users with closeness desired by the user A whileprotecting privacy of the users B to Z in the group.

As explained above, sharing level information is set in the informationmanagement server 20 according to this embodiment. Viewing informationof the users corresponding to the respective content viewing apparatuses10 is filtered on the basis of the sharing level information. This makesit possible to manage privacy of the users in the group and executeadjustment of an information acquisition range according to preferenceof the users.

A matching unit of the information management server 20 according to amodification of this embodiment is explained with reference to FIG. 7and FIGS. 16 to 18. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a configuration of thematching unit that performs future prediction according to themodification of this embodiment. FIGS. 16 to 18 are diagrams forexplaining the structure of a database obtained as a result ofperforming the future prediction according to the modification of thisembodiment.

The matching unit 226 of the user-viewing-content managing unit 220generates the viewing content DB 228 including viewing user informationwith a viewing attribute “history in the past”, “present state”, or“viewing plan” (see FIG. 15). On the other hand, a matching unit 230according to the modification generates viewing user information with aviewing attribute “viewing prediction” in addition to the viewingattribute “history in the past”, “present state”, or “viewing plan” andadds this information to the user viewing content DB 228 as viewing userinformation. The viewing attribute “viewing prediction” represents thata user is likely to view a content broadcasted in future. “Viewingprediction” is explained in detailed below.

The matching unit 230 generates, on the basis of a viewing history andpreference of a user, viewing prediction information (e.g., a viewingprobability 0 to 100%) of the user according to a predeterminedestimation algorithm. Specifically, the matching unit 230 analyzesviewing prediction and record scheduling information obtained from thecontent viewing apparatus 10 of the user, the viewing historyinformation accumulated in the information management server 20, and thelike and calculates a probability that the user views a content plannedto be broadcasted in future. For example, when a broadcast program is acontent having continuity such as a drama, it is possible to grasp to acertain extent, by analyzing a viewing history of contents of episodesbroadcasted in the past and presence or absence of viewing schedulingfor the content of the next episode, whether the user views a content ofthe next episode. Even if the broadcast program is not a serial content,it is possible to judge a viewing tendency, preference, and the like ofa user and calculate a probability that the user views similar contentsby analyzing attribute information of contents that the user viewed inthe past.

Therefore, the matching unit 230 shown in FIG. 7 calculates, on thebasis of the viewing information of the user and using the predeterminedestimation algorithm, a probability that the user views plural contentsin future included in a program guide. In this way, the matching unit230 performs viewing prediction. As the predetermined estimationalgorithm, for example, an estimation algorithm employing the followingformula 1 can be used. An overview of the viewing prediction isexplained below. The following formula (1) is a formula for calculatinga viewing probability (UM, PRG).

$\begin{matrix}{{{Viewing}\mspace{14mu}{probability}\mspace{14mu}\left( {{UM},{PRG}} \right)} = \frac{\sum\limits_{i}\;\left( {{{UM}({\mathbb{i}})} \times {{PRG}({\mathbb{i}})}} \right)}{\sqrt{\sum\limits_{i}\;{{UM}({\mathbb{i}})}^{2}} \times \sqrt{\sum\limits_{i}\;{{PRG}({\mathbb{i}})}^{2}}}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

In Formula (1), “UM” represents a user model vector and “PRG” representsa program vector.

The program vector (PRG) is a vector representing a characteristic of acontent (a program). The program vector (PRG) is calculated bydata-mining content metadata. For example, a genre of a content, aperformer, a keyword extracted from an explanatory note, and the likeare elements of the content vector.

The user model vector (UM) is a vector representing a taste of the user.The user model vector (UM) is calculated by learning processing based onan operation log of a content viewing action of the user (e.g., whenrecording processing for a certain program is performed, adding contents(a performer and a keyword) included in the program vector to the usermodel vector (UM)) and initial input by the user (e.g., added to theuser model vector (UM) on the basis of input of a favorite genre,entertainer, and the like).

It is possible to calculate viewing probabilities (UM, PRG) of therespective contents by applying the user model vector (UM) and theprogram vector (PMG) to Formula (1), calculating a degree of taste ofthe user with respect to the program, and normalizing degrees of tastefor all the contents.

In order to execute the estimation algorithm described above, thematching unit 230 shown in FIG. 7 further includes a user-viewingpredicting unit 232 in addition to the configuration shown in FIG. 6.The user-viewing predicting unit 232 predicts, on the basis of theviewing information of the respective users received from the respectivecontent viewing apparatuses 10 and the attribute information of thecontents included in the program guide in the content information DB 22,contents that the respective users are likely to view. The user-viewingpredicting unit 232 calculates viewing probabilities of the contents. Inthe program contents included in the program guide, attributeinformation such as a category of a program, a cast, a genre, a viewingage, and a degree of variety is set in advance for each of the programcontents. The user-viewing predicting unit 232 matches, for all thecontents, the attribute information of the program contents and thetaste information of the users and predicts viewing by the users.

The user-viewing predicting unit 232 includes a user-attribute-UMcalculating unit 234, a content-attribute-PRG calculating unit 236, anda user-viewing-probability calculating unit 238.

The user-attribute-UM calculating unit 234 calculates the user modelvector (UM) representing a taste of the users according to the learningprocessing based on the viewing information of the users read out fromthe user viewing DB 222, the initial input of the users, and the like.The content-attribute-PRG calculating unit 236 calculates the programvector (PMG) representing a characteristic of a content (a program) onthe basis of the attribute information of the contents included in theprogram guide read out from the content information DB 224. Theuser-viewing-probability calculating unit 238 calculates the viewingprobabilities (UM, PRG) of the users with respect to plural contents infuture included in the program guide by applying the calculated usermodel vector (UM) and program vector (PMG) to Formula (1). Thepredetermined estimation algorithm is not limited to the exampledescribed above. For example, the estimation algorithm described inJP-A-2005-57713 may be used.

With the estimation algorithm described above, the matching unit 230 canpredict contents that the users are likely to view among the contentsincluded in the program guide and calculate viewing probabilities of thecontents. The matching unit 230 adds the predicted viewing informationof the users to the viewing information of the users in the user viewingDB 222.

For example, in the user viewing DB 222 shown in FIG. 16, as viewingprediction for the user A with respect to a content in future, viewinginformation in which a viewing ID “777”, a content ID “1112233”, viewingdate and time “03/11 09:00”, and a viewing attribute “viewing prediction(80%)” are associated is added.

The matching unit 230 generates the user viewing content DB 228 in whichthe contents in future included in the program guide of the contentinformation DB 224 and the information concerning the viewingprobability predicted by the user-viewing predicting unit 232 areassociated.

Specifically, in the same manner as the matching processing unit 226shown in FIG. 6, the matching unit 230 matches the user viewing DB 222and the content information DB 224 and establishes the user viewingcontent DB 228 including the viewing user information “history in thepast”, “present state”, and “future plan”. The matching unit 230 addsthe viewing user information predicted by the user-viewing predictingunit 232 to the user viewing content DB 228. For example, in the userviewing content DB 228 shown in FIG. 17, as viewing information of“future prediction” obtained by the viewing prediction, viewing userinformation of the user A (the user ID of the user A and the viewingprobability 100%) and viewing user information of the user B (the userID of the user B and the viewing probabilty 40%) are added to a contentin future having a content ID “05”. This means that the user A views thecontent with the content ID “05” at the viewing probability 100% and theuser B views the content at the viewing probability 40%.

In this way, the user viewing content DB 228 including the predictedviewing user information is filtered by the filtering unit 218.According to the filtering, other users satisfying the condition of thesharing level information are discriminated and viewing information ofthe discriminated other users is extracted and provided to the contentviewing apparatus 10.

The user viewing content DB 228 (including the future prediction)filtered for the user A is shown in FIG. 18. As shown in FIG. 18, in theuser viewing content DB 228, in addition to the viewing user informationof “history in the past”, “present state”, and “future plan” shown inFIG. 15, the viewing user information of “future prediction” isincluded. The content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A can presentviewing prediction information of the other users to the user A byreceiving information of the user viewing content DB 228 after thefiltering.

The configuration of the information management server 20 according tothis embodiment and the examples of the various kinds of informationtreated by the information management server 20 are explained above withreference to FIGS. 4 to 18.

Environment setting processing in the information sharing system 1according to this embodiment is explained below with reference to FIG.19. FIG. 19 is a flowchart of the environment setting processing (groupregistration and user correlation information setting processing) in theinformation sharing system 1 according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 19, first, the content viewing apparatus 10 of the userA transmits an instruction for generating a new group X to theinformation management server 20 on the basis of an input of the user A(step S10). According to the generation instruction, the informationmanagement server 20 generates the group X anew and registers the groupX in the group DB 216 (step S12).

The content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A transmits an instructionfor registering the user A in the group X to the information managementserver 20 (step S14). According to the registration instruction, theinformation management server 20 registers the user A in the group X(step S16). Specifically, the information management server 20 registersthe user ID and the user name of the user A as group information of thegroup X of the group DB 216 (see FIG. 8). In the same manner, theinformation management server 20 registers the other users B, C, and thelike in the group X (step S18).

The user A sets user correlation information (closeness level values)with respect to the users B, C, and the like belonging to the group X(steps S20 and S22). The content viewing apparatus 10 of the user Atransmits, on the basis of an input of the user A, a setting instructionincluding the user correlation information (the closeness level values)between the user A and the users B, C, and the like to the informationmanagement server 20 (step S20). According to the setting instruction,the information management server 20 sets the user correlationinformation of the user A in the group DB 216 (step S22). Specifically,the information management server 20 sets closeness level values of theuser A with respect to the other users B, C, and the like in the groupDB 216 as the user correlation information of the user A (see FIG. 9).In the same manner, the other users B, C, and the like set usercorrelation information with respect to the other users in the group X(step S24). Basically, the setting of the user correlation informationis statically performed before sharing of the viewing information in thecontent viewing apparatuses 10.

Consequently, a group DB is established in the information managementserver 20 and the environment setting for sharing the viewinginformation among the plural users A, B, C, and the like belonging tothe identical group X is finished.

A viewing information sharing method in the information sharing system 1according to this embodiment is explained with reference to FIG. 20.FIG. 20 is a flowchart of the viewing information sharing method in theinformation sharing system 1 according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 20, first, the user A starts the content viewingapparatus 10 and requests connection to the information managementserver 20 (step S30). In response to this request, the informationmanagement server 20 performs authentication for the user A and permitsthe connection of the content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A (stepS32). Thereafter, the user A views a content of a desired channel usingthe content viewing apparatus 10.

Subsequently, the user A sets information disclosure level informationand information acquisition level information with respect to the otherusers at an arbitrary content viewing point (steps S34 and S36).Specifically, the content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A transmits,on the basis of a user input, the information disclosure levelinformation and the information acquisition level information of theuser A with respect to the other users to the information managementserver 20 and instructs setting of these kinds of information (stepS34). According to the setting instruction, the information managementserver 20 sets the information disclosure level information and theinformation acquisition level information received from the contentviewing apparatus 10 of the user A in the group DB 216 (step S36).Specifically, the information management server 20 sets informationdisclosure level values and information acquisition level values of theuser A with respect to the other users in the group X in the group DB216 as the information disclosure level information and the informationacquisition level information of the user A (see FIG. 10). In the samemanner, the other users B, C, and the like set information disclosurelevels and information acquisition levels with respect to the otherusers in the group X (step S38). The setting of the informationdisclosure level information and the information acquisition levelinformation can be dynamically adjusted during content viewing in thecontent viewing apparatus 10.

Thereafter, during viewing of a content in the content viewing apparatus10, the content viewing apparatus 10 transmits viewing information(e.g., viewing content information such as a viewing channel, a viewinglocation, and a content ID, viewing state information, and enthusiasminformation) of the user A to the information management server 20 (stepS40). The information management server 20 stores the viewinginformation received from the content viewing apparatus 10 of the user Ain the user viewing DB 222 (step S42).

The viewing information may include not only information concerning acontent presently viewed by the user A but also information concerning acontent viewed in the past and a content planned to be viewed in future.The content viewing apparatus 10 may periodically transmit the viewinginformation of the user A or may transmit the viewing information of theuser A at a point when a viewing content is changed. The transmittedviewing information is safely treated under privacy management by theuser-viewing-content managing unit 220 of the information managementserver 20. However, it is also possible for the content viewingapparatus 10 of the user A not to transmit a part or all of the viewinginformation to the information management server 20 according to theinformation disclosure levels of the user A set in steps S34 and S36.

In the same manner, the content viewing apparatuses 10 of the users B,C, and the like transmit viewing information of the users B, C, and thelike to the information management server 20. The information managementserver 20 stores the viewing information in the user viewing DB 222(step S44). The information management server 20 collects viewinginformation of the respective users from the respective content viewingapparatus 10 and accumulates the viewing information in the user viewingDB 222 by repeating steps S40 to S44 (see FIG. 12).

While collecting the viewing information in this way, the informationmanagement server 20 establishes the content information DB 224 on thebasis of a program guide such as an EPG acquired from the outside (stepS46). Specifically, concerning various contents such as a broadcast, apackage medium, video and sound contents of a delivery medium, and agame content, the user-viewing-content managing unit 220 of theinformation management server 20 collects and analyzes meta-information(e.g., broadcasting time, a program ID, and a content ID of a packagemedium) and attribute information (e.g., a performer, a genre, and arelated content) of the respective contents. Consequently, theinformation management server 20 generates program information of acontent suitable for the information sharing system 1 and stores theprogram information in the content information DB 224 (see FIG. 13).

Subsequently, the information management server 20 matches the viewinginformation of the respective users acquired from the respective contentviewing apparatuses 10 and stored in the user viewing information DB 222and the content program information (the program guide) stored in thecontent information DB 224 (step S48) and establishes the user viewingcontent DB 228 (step S50). The user viewing content DB 228 isinformation in which contents included in the content programinformation and viewing user information of the contents are associated(see FIGS. 14 and 17) In the user viewing content DB 228, the viewinguser information of the users in the group X is sorted in time serieswith the contents in the program information. The user viewing contentDB 228 represents which user views which content.

The content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A transmits a viewinginformation request to the other users on the basis of an input of theuser A (step S52). The information management server 20 receives viewinginformation requests of the other users (step S54). The informationmanaging server 20 extracts, after performing privacy management andoptimum filtering according to sharing level setting among the users inthe group X, the viewing information of the other users in the group Xfrom the user viewing content DB 228 in response to the viewinginformation request from the content viewing apparatus 10 (step S56) andtransmits the viewing information to the content viewing apparatus 10 ofthe user A (step S58). Details of the filtering are described later (seeFIG. 21).

As a result, the content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A receives theviewing information of the other users from the information managementserver 20 and displays the viewing information of the other users inparallel to a reproduced video of a content being viewed (step S60).Consequently, the user A can learn, while viewing the content,information on the other users B, C, and the like in the group X who areviewing the content. At this point, it is possible to adjust a sharinglevel of viewing information even among users in an identical group byperforming filtering corresponding to setting of information disclosurelevels and information acquisition levels among the users.

The filtering of viewing information in the information sharing system 1according to this embodiment is explained with reference to FIG. 21.FIG. 21 is a flowchart of the filtering in the information sharingsystem according to this embodiment. The processing shown in FIG. 21corresponds to steps S50 to S60 shown in FIG. 20.

As shown in FIG. 21, the information management server 20 generates theuser viewing content DB 228 in advance on the basis of viewinginformation received from the content viewing apparatuses 10 (step S50).As explained above, the user viewing content DB 228 is informationobtained by adding viewing user information sorted for each of contentsto program information of contents and is established as a contentprogram guide with user viewing information.

In this state, the content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A transmitsa viewing information request for the other users (step S52). Theinformation management server 20 receives the viewing informationrequest from the content viewing apparatus 10 at a request source (stepS54) and executes filtering S56-1 to 56-6 (corresponding to step S56shown in FIG. 20) described below.

First, the information management server 20 discriminates one or two ormore users X at an information request level of the user A on the basisof the group DB 216 (step S56-1). Specifically, the informationmanagement server 20 specifies, referring to the group information inthe group DB 216, users belonging to a group identical with a group towhich the user A belongs. Subsequently, the information managementserver 20 reads out the information acquisition level information (theinformation acquisition level values) of the user A and the usercorrelation information (the closeness level value) concerning the userA set in the group DB 216 and compares the closeness level values of theuser A with respect to the respective users and the informationacquisition level value of the user A. According to a result of thecomparison, the information management server 20 discriminates the userX whose closeness level value is equal to or higher than the informationacquisition level value of the user A out of the users in the group (seeFIG. 5). Such a user X is a user in a range of an information requestlevel of the user A. The user discrimination processing in step S56-1 isfirst user discrimination processing based on the informationacquisition level of the user A at a request source.

Subsequently, the information management server 20 checks informationdisclosure levels of the respective users X (step S56-2) and judgeswhether the user A is included in ranges of the information disclosurelevels of the respective users X (step S56-3). As a result of thejudgment, when the user A is not included in the ranges of theinformation disclosure levels of the respective users X, the informationmanagement server 20 determines not to disclose the viewing informationof the users X to the user A (step S56-4). On the other hand, when theuser A is included in the ranges of the information disclosure levels ofthe respective users X, the information management server 20 determinesto disclose the viewing information of the users X to the user A (stepS56-5).

Specifically, first, the information management server 20 reads out theinformation disclosure level information (the information disclosurelevel values) of the respective users X and the user correlationinformation (the closeness level values) of the respective users X withrespect to the user A set in the group DB 216 and compares the closenesslevel values of the respective users X with respect to the user A andthe information disclosure level values of the respective users X.According to a result of the comparison, the information managementserver 20 discriminates the user X whose closeness level value withrespect to the user A is equal to or larger than the informationdisclosure level value of the user X (see FIG. 5). Such a user X is auser in a range of the information request level of the user A and is auser including the user A in a range of the information disclosure levelof the user X. The user discrimination processing in steps S56-2 to 56-4is second user discrimination processing based on the informationdisclosure levels of the other users X.

Subsequently, the information management server 20 extracts viewinginformation of the user X discriminated in this way from the userviewing content DB 228, generates viewing information of the other usersX provided to the user A on the basis of the extracted information (stepS56-6), and transmits the viewing information to the content viewingapparatus 10 of the user A (step S58).

Then, the content viewing apparatus 10 of the user A receives, from theinformation management server 20, the viewing information of the otherusers X provided to the user A and displays the viewing information inparallel to a content being viewed (step S60).

The filtering according to this embodiment is explained above. With thefiltering, it is possible to limit, according to user setting, the otherusers to whom viewing information is disclosed and perform privacymanagement and it is possible to adjust a range of the other users fromwhom the user desires acquisition of viewing information.

An example of display of viewing information of the other users in thecontent viewing apparatus 10 according to this embodiment is explained.

As explained with reference to FIG. 3, the content viewing apparatus 10can display the viewing information of the other users acquired from theinformation management server 20 on the display screen of the displayunit 132 in parallel to a video of a content being reproduced. At thispoint, the viewing-information-display control unit 146 of the contentviewing apparatus 10 can specify, on the basis of the viewinginformation of the other users received from the information managementserver 20, the other users who are viewing a content identical with thecontent that the user of the content viewing apparatus 10 is viewing.The viewing-information-display control unit 146 causes the display unit132 to display user information representing the specified other users.As the user information, can be used arbitrary information such as textinformation (e.g., user names or texts representing nicknames), images(e.g., face photographs or portraits), icons (e.g., pictorial symbolsrepresenting faces of the other users), marks, figures, signs, orcharacters representing the other users as long as the information canidentify the respective other users. In the following explanation, anexample in which face icons are used as user information is mainlyexplained. However, the present invention is not limited to such anexample.

FIGS. 22 to 26 are diagrams for explaining examples of a display screenfor viewing information of the other users displayed together with acontent being reproduced in the content viewing apparatus 10 accordingto this embodiment.

In the example shown in FIG. 22, a video 160 of a content presentlyreproduced (e.g., a program content being broadcasted) and three faceicons (corresponding to the user information) representing the otherthree users who are viewing the content are displayed on the displayscreen 150 of the content viewing apparatus 10. Consequently, the user Aof the content viewing apparatus 10 can understand that the three otherusers are viewing a content of a channel “BS digital 123ch” same as thecontent that the user A is viewing.

In the example shown in FIG. 22, a display area of the display screen150 is divided into a content display area 152 for displaying a video ofthe content being reproduced and an application information display area154. The application information display area 154 is an area fordisplaying various kinds of information (e.g., weather forecast, fortunetelling, and news) provided by applications of the content viewingapparatus 10. The face icons 170 are displayed in the applicationinformation display area 154 and indicate information provided by aviewing information sharing application of the content viewing apparatus10.

In the example shown in FIG. 23, in a lower part of the display screen150 of the content viewing apparatus 10, three face icons 170 aredisplayed in a form superimposed on a video 162 of a content presentlyreproduced.

In the example shown in FIG. 24, in a lower right part of the displayscreen 150 of the content viewing apparatus 10, a relatively smallsquare user information display area 180 is provided in a formsuperimposed on the video 162 of the content presently reproduced. Thethree face icons 170 are displayed in the user information display area180.

In the example shown in FIG. 25, the three face icons 170 representingthe other users who are viewing the content being reproduced in thecontent viewing apparatus 10 are displayed on a display screen 192 of aportable apparatus 190 that can communicate with the content viewingapparatus 10 by radio. The portable apparatus 190 is, for example, amulti-function remote controller, a PDA, a cellular phone, a portablevideo and sound player, a portable game machine, or the like. In thiscase, user information of the other users can be transmitted from thecontent viewing apparatus 10 to the portable apparatus 190 and can bedisplayed in association with one another by the content viewingapparatus 10 and the portable apparatus 190.

In the example shown in FIG. 26, a content display area of the displayscreen 150 of the content viewing apparatus 10 is divided into pluraldisplay areas 152A to 152E and contents being broadcasted in pluraldifferent broadcast channels are simultaneously displayed in parallel inthe display areas 152A to 152E. At this point, face icons 170A to 170Dof the other users who are viewing to the contents of the respectivebroadcast channels are displayed in positions corresponding to therespective display areas 152A to 152D as viewing information of theother users. For example, a content being broadcasted in “123ch” isdisplayed in the display area 152C. Face icons 170C of the three otherusers who are viewing this content are displayed in a lower part of thedisplay area 152C. A content being broadcasted in “115ch” is displayedin the display area 152E. However, since no other user is viewing thiscontent (or no other user discloses viewing information to the user A),the face icons 170 are not displayed in the display area 152E. With sucha display format shown in FIG. 26, the user A of the content viewingapparatus 10 can easily and quickly grasp presence or absence of theother users who are viewing contents of plural different channels, thenumber of users, and the like.

An example of display of viewing information of the other users at thetime when the user A sets and changes sharing level information in thecontent viewing apparatus 10 according to this embodiment is explainedwith reference to FIGS. 27 to 29.

In examples of display of viewing information shown in all FIGS. 27 to29, the user A of the content viewing apparatus 10 sets the informationacquisition level value to “5” to limit a range of users from whomviewing information is acquired and the user A sets the informationacquisition level value to “2” to expand the range of users from whomviewing information is acquired. In all the figures, the video 160 of acontent presently reproduced is displayed in the content display area152 of the display screen 150. Viewing information of the other userswho are viewing this content is displayed in the application informationdisplay area 154.

In the example shown in FIG. 27, the face icons 170 are displayed asviewing information of the other users. When the user A sets theinformation acquisition level value to “5”, among the other users whoare viewing a content identical with a content that the user A isviewing, the three face icons 170 of the three other users B, C, and Dhaving high closeness with the user A are displayed on the displayscreen 150. This is useful to learn a viewing state of users having highcloseness with the user A such as family members and close friends.

On the other hand, when the user A sets the information acquisitionlevel value to “2”, among the other users who are viewing a contentidentical with a content that the user A is viewing, the six face icons170 of the six other users B, C, D, E, F, and G including users withhigh closeness and users with low closeness are displayed. This isuseful for, for example, learning a general viewing tendency or the likeby expanding a range of users from whom viewing information is acquired.

Since a level value of the information acquisition level information isset and changed in this way, according to preference of users, the userA can limit or expand the range of users from whom viewing informationis acquired. By displaying the face icons 170, it is possible to plainlydisplay the other users who are viewing the identical content.

In the example shown in FIG. 28, a time axis graph 172 is displayed asviewing information of the other users. The time axis graph 172represents the number of other users who are viewing a content identicalwith a content that the user A is viewing. When the user A sets theinformation acquisition level value to “5”, among the other three usersB, C, and D having high closeness with the user A, the time axis graph172 representing a change of the number of other users who are viewing acontent identical with a content that the user A is viewing is displayedon the display screen 150.

On the other hand, when the user A sets the information acquisitionlevel value to “2”, among the six other users B, C, D, E, F, and Gincluding users having high closeness and low closeness with the user A,the time axis graph 172 representing a change of the number of otherusers who are viewing a content identical with a content that the user Ais viewing is displayed on the display screen 150.

Since the time axis graph 172 is displayed in this way, the user A caneasily grasp the number of other users who are viewing the content beingviewed, an increase or decrease of the number of other users on a timeaxis, and a viewing tendency. Besides the time axis graph, viewinginformation may be displayed as various graphs, tables, figures, and thelike.

In the example shown in FIG. 29, comment information 174 of the otherusers is displayed, for example, in a bulletin board or chat format asviewing information of the other users. The comment information 174 istext information representing comments that the other users input whenthe other users view a content and is, for example, “interesting!!” and“sad because the hero has died” representing thoughts and ideas ofusers, feeling during viewing, and the like concerning a viewingcontent. Since the comment information 174 is displayed together withthe content being viewed, the user A can grasp, on a real time basis,the thoughts and the ideas of the other users who are viewing thecontent and can communicate thoughts, ideas, and the like of the user Ato the other users.

In an example in which the comment information 174 is displayed, whenthe user A sets the information acquisition level value to “5”, commentsof a small number of other users B, C, and D having high closeness withthe user A are displayed on the display screen 150. This makes itpossible to exclude comments of estranged users and look at onlycomments of friendly users. On the other hand, when the user A sets theinformation acquisition level value to “2”, comments of a large numberof other users including the other users having high closeness and lowcloseness with the user A are displayed on the display screen 150.Consequently, the user A can look at comments of a variety of usersincluding friendly users and estranged users and use the comments as areference for content viewings.

A method of the user A dynamically setting and changing sharing levelinformation during content viewing in the content viewing apparatus 10according to this embodiment is explained with reference to FIGS. 30 to32.

In examples of display of viewing information shown in both FIGS. 30 and31, the user A of the content viewing apparatus 10 sets the informationacquisition level value to “5” to limit a range of users from whomviewing information is acquired and the user A sets the informationacquisition level value to “2” to expand the range of users from whomviewing information is acquired. In both the figures, during viewing ofa content by the content viewing apparatus 10, the video 160 of acontent presently reproduced and the face icons 170 as viewinginformation of the other users are simultaneously displayed on thedisplay screen 150.

FIGS. 30A and 30B are diagrams of examples in which the informationacquisition level value is dynamically set and changed by using a remotecontroller 4 with a sliding lever 4 a. The remote controller 4 with thesliding lever 4 a (hereinafter simply referred to as “remote controller4”) has the sliding lever 4 a as an operation key. The sliding lever 4 ais, for example, a T-shaped lever. The user A can increase and decreasean input value concerning predetermined operation by moving the slidinglever 4 a in forward and reverse directions. In an example explainedhere, a level value of information acquisition level information (aninformation acquisition level value) of the user A with respect to theother users is set and changed by using the sliding lever 4 a.

In the remote controller 4, a higher information acquisition levelvalues is inputted as the sliding lever 4 a is further in a forwarddirection (a lower direction in the figure) and a lower informationacquisition level value is inputted as the sliding lever 4 a is furtherin a reverse direction (an upward direction in the figure). Therefore,the user A can set and change, from the content viewing apparatus 10 tothe information management server 20, the information acquisition levelvalue of the user A to a high (or low) level value by moving the slidinglever 4 a of the remote controller 4 in the forward direction (or thereverse direction).

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 30A, the user A can set the informationacquisition level value of the user A to the maximum value “5” by movingthe sliding lever 4 a in the forward direction to the maximum duringcontent viewing. As a result, the three face icons 170 of the threeother users B, C, and D who are viewing the content identical with thecontent that the user A is viewing are displayed on the display screen150. When the sliding lever 4 a is moved in the reverse direction fromsuch a state, a set value of the information acquisition level value ofthe user A is gradually set and changed to smaller values from “5”.According to the decrease in the set value of the informationacquisition level value, since a range of users from whom information isacquired by the user A is expanded, the number of face icons 170displayed on the display screen 150 increases. As a result, for example,as shown in FIG. 30B, when the information acquisition level value isset and changed to “2”, the six face icons 170 of the six other users B,C, D, E, F, and G who are viewing the content identical with the contentthat the user A is viewing are displayed on the display screen 150.

In this way, the user A can dynamically set and change the informationacquisition level value using the sliding lever 4 a of the remotecontroller 4 during content viewing in the content viewing apparatus 10.In this setting and changing processing, the user A only has to move thesliding lever 4 a up and down. Therefore, level setting operation iseasy and the information acquisition level value can be easily andfreely set and changed during content viewing.

An example in which the information acquisition level value isdynamically set and changed by using a remote controller 6 with a crosskey 6 a is explained with FIGS. 31A and 31B.

As shown in FIGS. 31A and 31B, in the remote controller 6 with the crosskey 6 a (hereinafter simply referred to as “remote controller 6”), ahigh information acquisition level value is inputted when the cross key6 a is pressed downward and a low information acquisition level value isinputted when the cross key 6 a is pressed upward. Therefore, the user Aof the content viewing apparatus 10 can set and change the informationacquisition level value of the user A by moving the cross key 6 a of theremote controller 6 upward and downward.

A sliding lever state display area 192 in which an image obtained byimaging a state of the above-described sliding lever 4 a is displayed ata lower right corner of the display screen 150 of the content viewingapparatus 10. In the sliding lever state display area 192, a slidinglever image 192 a imitating the sliding lever 4 a is moved up and downaccording to user operation of the cross key 6 a of the remotecontroller 6. For example, when the user presses the cross key 6 adownward, the sliding lever image 192 a of the sliding lever statedisplay area 192 is also moved downward. When the sliding lever statedisplay area 192 is provided, since a position of the sliding leverimage 192 a represents a set value of the information acquisition level,the user can easily grasp a present set value.

By using the remote controller 6 described above, as in the case of theremote controller 4, it is possible to dynamically set and change theinformation acquisition level value of the user A. Consequently, whenthe cross key 6 a is pressed downward to set the information acquisitionlevel value high, the number of face icons 170 displayed on the displayscreen 150 decreases (see FIG. 31A). On the other hand, when the crosskey 6 a is pressed upward to set the information acquisition level valuelow, the number of face icons 170 displayed on the display screen 150increases (see FIG. 31B).

The methods of dynamically setting and changing the informationacquisition level value of the user during content viewing using thesliding lever 4 a and the cross key 6 a of the remote controllers 4 and6 are explained above with reference to FIGS. 31A and 30B and FIGS. 31Aand 31B. When the information acquisition level value is dynamically setand changed as described above, the filtering unit 218 of theinformation management server 20 dynamically changes, according to theSetting change of the information acquisition level value, the otherusers discriminated out of the other users belonging to the groupidentical with the group to which the user A of the content viewingapparatus 10 at the request source belongs. In other words, when theinformation acquisition level value is increased, the number of otherusers discriminated as information acquisition objects decreases. Whenthe information acquisition level value is reduced, the number of otherusers discriminated as information acquisition objects increases. As aresult, as shown in FIGS. 30A and 30B and FIGS. 31A and 31B, it ispossible to dynamically change, during content viewing, viewinginformation of the other users displayed on the content viewingapparatus 10 of the user A.

The example in which only the information acquisition level is set andchanged is explained above. However, the present invention is notlimited to such an example. For example, the information acquisitionlevel and the information disclosure level may be set and changed inassociation with each other by using an operation key such as thesliding lever 4 a or the cross key 6 a. Alternatively, the informationacquisition level and the information disclosure level may beindividually set and changed. The operation key used for the setting andchanging of the level values is not limited to the sliding lever 4 a andthe cross key 6 a and may be other arbitrary operation means such as alever, a dial, a button, and a touch panel.

Setting modes for the information disclosure level information and theinformation acquisition level information according to this embodimentare explained with reference to FIG. 32. FIG. 32 is a diagram forexplaining the setting modes for the information disclosure levelinformation and the information acquisition level information accordingto this embodiment.

As explained above, when the setting and changing of the informationdisclosure level information and the information acquisition levelinformation is performed, the content viewing apparatus 10 transmits asetting instruction including a setting instruction value to theinformation management server 20. The sharing-level setting unit 214(see FIG. 4) of the information management server 20 changes, on thebasis of the received setting instruction value, set values of theinformation disclosure level information and the information acquisitionlevel information in the group DB 216.

When the setting instruction from the content viewing apparatus 10includes two setting instruction values, i.e., a user designated valuecorresponding to the information disclosure level information and a userdesignated value (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) corresponding to theinformation acquisition level information, the sharing-level settingunit 214 only has to directly set the respective user designated valuesin the group DB 216.

However, when the setting instruction includes only one settinginstruction value (e.g., 0 to 100) generated by using one operation keysuch as the sliding lever 4 a or the cross key 6 a, the sharing-levelsetting unit 214 generates, according to the one setting instructionvalue (e.g., 0 to 100), a level value (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) of theinformation disclosure level information and a level value (e.g., 1, 2,3, 4, or 5) of the information acquisition level information and setsthe generated level values in the group DB 216.

It is possible to provide plural setting modes by generating the levelvalue of the information disclosure level information and the levelvalue of the information acquisition level information to be differentvalues on the basis of one setting instruction value. A specific exampleof the plural setting modes is explained below.

As shown in FIG. 32, the sharing-level setting unit 214 (see FIG. 4) hasan information disclosure and acquisition equivalent mode, aninformation acquisition preferential mode, and an information disclosurepreferential mode as setting modes.

First, the information disclosure and acquisition equivalent mode is amode for generating an information disclosure level value and aninformation acquisition level value identical with each other accordingto a setting instruction value (e.g., 0 to 100) of the operation keysuch as the sliding lever 4 a. For example, when the setting instructionvalue is “0”, both the information disclosure level value and theinformation acquisition level value are set to “5”. When the settinginstruction value is “50”, both the information disclosure level valueand the information acquisition level value are set to “3”. When theinformation disclosure level value and the information acquisition levelvalue are set to the identical value according to the settinginstruction value of the operation key in this way, a range of otherusers from whom the user A acquires information and a range of otherusers to whom information of the user A is disclosed typically coincidewith each other.

Second, the information acquisition preferential mode is a mode forsetting the information acquisition level value to be typically equal toor lower than the information disclosure level value according to thesetting instruction value (e.g., 0 to 100) of the operation key. Forexample, when the setting instruction value is “0”, both the informationdisclosure level value and the information acquisition level value areset to “5”. However, when the setting instruction value is “50”, theinformation disclosure level value is set to “3” and the informationacquisition level value is set to “2”. When the information acquisitionlevel value is set to be equal to or lower than the informationdisclosure level value in this way, a range of other users from whom theuser A acquires information is wider than a range of other users to whominformation of the user A is disclosed. Therefore, the user A can givehigher priority to the acquisition of the viewing information of theother users than the disclosure of the viewing information of the userA.

Third, the information disclosure preferential mode is a mode forsetting the information acquisition level value to be typically equal toor higher than the information disclosure level value according to thesetting instruction value (e.g., 0 to 100) of the operation key. Forexample, when the setting instruction value is “0”, both the informationdisclosure level value and the information acquisition level value areset to “5”. However, when the setting instruction value is “50”, theinformation disclosure level value is set to “3” and the informationacquisition level value is set to “4”. When the information acquisitionlevel value is set to be equal to or higher than the informationdisclosure level value, a range of other users from whom the user Aacquires information is narrower than a range of other users to whominformation of the user A is disclosed. Therefore, the user A can givehigher priority to the disclosure of the viewing information of the userA than the acquisition of the viewing information of the other users.

It is possible to diversify a method of sharing viewing informationamong users and improve convenience for the users by providing theplural setting modes in this way.

The information sharing system 1 according to this embodiment, theinformation sharing method employing the information sharing system 1,and the like are explained in detail above. According to thisembodiment, viewing information of users in the plural content viewingapparatuses 10 are shared via the information management server 20 and,according to a viewing content of each of the users, viewing informationof the other users is filtered and, then, provided to the user.

Consequently, when the user views a content such as a video, sound, agame, or the like, the user can display viewing information of the otherusers who are presently viewing the content (viewed the content in thepast or plans to view the content in future) on the screen of thecontent viewing apparatus 10 in parallel to content information. Forexample, when the user views a program content of a televisionbroadcast, the user can display viewing information of the other userswho are viewing a program content of a tuned-in channel of the user onthe screen of the content viewing apparatus 10 together with the programcontent that the user is viewing.

Therefore, the user can learn, for each of contents, which user isviewing the content. Therefore, the user can obtain a chance for viewinga content such as “I shall view a content if he is viewing it” or achance for viewing a content together with the other users such as “Ishall view a content if I can view it together with him”. Consequently,amusement of content viewing is increased and a value of using thecontent viewing apparatus is increased.

In this embodiment, the sharing level information including theinformation disclosure level and the information acquisition level ofeach of the users are set in the information management server 20 andviewing information of the other users provided to the user is filtered.This makes it possible to execute privacy management corresponding toinformation disclosure level setting among the users. The user canarbitrarily adjust, according to information acquisition level setting,a range of users from whom the user acquires information. Therefore, itis possible to adjust an information acquisition range corresponding topreference of the user. Consequently, for example, it is possible tolimit an acquisition range of viewing information to only a friendlyuser group such as family members or, conversely, expand the range to alarge number of user groups in a not-so friendly relation such asacquaintances of acquaintances of the user.

Further, with the function of sharing the viewing information, the SNSservice specialized for specific apparatuses such as a PC and a cellularphone in the past can be expanded to a new user class such as a non-PCclass. A user of the PC and the cellar phone in the past can feel statesand signs of other users such as family members and friends through thecontent viewing apparatus 10 (e.g., a television receiver) set in aliving room or the like. Therefore, it is possible to provideconvenience different from that in the use in apparatuses such as the PCand the cellular phone in which startup time and a display size arelimited.

The embodiments of the present invention are explained above withreference to the accompanying drawings. However, it goes without sayingthat the present invention is not limited to such an example. It isevident that those skilled in the art can arrive at variousmodifications and alterations of the embodiment without departing fromthe spirit of the present invention. It is naturally understood that themodifications and alterations also belong to the technical scope of thepresent invention.

For example, in the embodiment, the example of the program content ofthe television broadcast is cited as the content to be viewed in thecontent viewing apparatus 10. However, the present invention is notlimited to such an example. For example, the present invention can alsobe applied when the user of the content viewing apparatus 10 views otherarbitrary contents such as a video content, a music content, a game, andan electronic book.

A program guide in the present invention is not limited to the exampleof the program guide including the EPG according to the embodiment.Arbitrary schedule information can be used as long as the scheduleinformation is information in which a schedule of contents that can beviewed in common among the plural content viewing apparatuses 10. Forexample, the program guide includes a schedule table of deliverycontents from the content delivery server 9, a program guide of a radiobroadcast, and the like as well. The present invention can also beapplied, for example, when viewing time of a shared content is adjustedamong users in a group and a viewing schedule is shared by a programscheduler or the like in advance. In this way, the program guide is notlimited to a public program guide distributed to the public from abroadcasting station or the like and may be a private schedule table inwhich a viewing plan of contents is arbitrarily set among the users.

In the embodiment, both the information disclosure level information andthe information acquisition level information are set. However, only oneof the information disclosure level information and the informationacquisition level information may be set. Level values of theinformation disclosure level information and the information acquisitionlevel information are not limited to be set in the five stages and canbe set in an arbitrary number of stages.

In the embodiment, when a user is viewing a content presentlybroadcasted, information on other users who are viewing the content isdisplayed. However, the present invention is not limited to such anexample. For example, when the user is viewing a content recorded in thepast, information on other users who viewed the content (orrecord-scheduled the content) may be displayed. Consequently, the usercan determine, referring to a viewing history of the other users,whether the user views the recorded content.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations, and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. Server apparatus comprising: circuitry configuredto store a relationship level representing a relationship between firstand second different users; receive, from a first user terminal of thefirst user, a disclosure range for digital information associated withcontent, the content including first image data, the digital informationincluding text information representing a comment to the content made bythe first user; determine whether to permit to transmit, to a seconduser terminal of the second user, display information based upon thestored relationship level and the received disclosure range; andtransmit, to the second user terminal, the display information basedupon the determination; wherein said display information includes: i)the first image data, ii) the text information representing a comment tothe content, and iii) second image data representing the first user,wherein the first image data, the text information and the second imagedata are simultaneously displayed at the second user terminal.
 2. Theserver apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the relationship level isdetermined from at least three relationship levels.
 3. The serverapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the server apparatus comprises asingle server.
 4. A method for determining information to be transmittedbetween users, comprising: storing a relationship level representing arelationship between first and second different users; receiving, from afirst user terminal of the first user, a disclosure range for digitalinformation associated with content, the content including first imagedata, the digital information including text information representing acomment to the content made by the first user; determining whether topermit to transmit, to a second user terminal of the second user,display information based upon the stored relationship level and thereceived disclosure range; and transmitting, to the second userterminal, the display information based upon the determination; whereinsaid display information includes: i) the first image data, ii) the textinformation representing a comment to the content, and iii) second imagedata representing the first user, wherein the first image data, the textinformation and the second image data are simultaneously displayed atthe second user terminal.
 5. The method according to claim 4, whereinthe relationship level is determined from at least three relationshiplevels.
 6. A non-transitory computer readable medium on which isrecorded a program that, when read by a processor, causes the processorto determine information to be transmitted between users by: storing arelationship level representing a relationship between first and seconddifferent users; receiving, from a first user terminal of the firstuser, a disclosure range for digital information associated withcontent, the content including first image data, the digital informationincluding text information representing a comment to the content made bythe first user; determining whether to permit to transmit, to a seconduser terminal of the second user, display information based upon thestored relationship level and the received disclosure range; andtransmitting, to the second user terminal, the display information basedupon the determination; wherein said display information includes: i)the first image data, ii) the text information representing a comment tothe content, and iii) second image data representing the first user,wherein the first image data, the text information and the second imagedata are simultaneously displayed at the second user terminal.
 7. Thenon-transitory medium of claim 6, wherein the relationship level isdetermined from at least three relationship levels.